Christmas card from Mars: Images of 82km-wide ice-filled crater
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express satellite has sent home spectacular Christmas card images from the Red Planet. The Korolev crater is an 82km-wide (50 mile) impact crater near the planet's north pole.It contains an estimated 2,200 cubic kilometres of water ice, frozen up to an estimated 2km (1.2 miles) deep.ESA's Mars Express mission launched back in 2003. It went into orbit around Mars on Christmas Day of that year, making this month the 15-year anniversary of the beginning of its science programme. The beautiful Christmas card image and two others are "an excellent celebration of such a milestone", according to ESA.They were taken by the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and the view they offer of the Korolev crater is composed of five di...